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Holistic Veterinary Medicine

Holistic remedies make headway into veterinary medicine

Veterinarian Kim Rotner kneels on a rug in her treatment room at Angell Memorial Animal Hospital in Boston and deftly inserts a stainless-steel needle into the top of her patient's grizzled head. Gently reassuring Theo, a 13-year-old female husky, she places 15 more needles along the dog's lower back, hips, and joints. Within minutes, Theo comes to resemble a canine pincushion. Yet neither she nor her master, Jonathan Aaron, is the least bit squeamish as Rotner goes about her work.

There is good reason for the air of confidence that pervades the room. For several months now, Aaron has witnessed what the ancient Chinese healing art of acupuncture can do for Theo. When the dog first visited Rotner, she could barely walk because of pain from arthritis and an inflamed spinal disc that was thought to be putting pressure on her nerves.

This morning, Aaron tells Romer that Theo is much better. "On Sunday she even ran in the park," he reports with a broad grin. What's more, he adds, she seems to respond when her name is called--a startling development because old age had taken away most of her hearing. "That's great!" says Rotner, who then explains that she "did points" for the dog's ears on a recent visit.

Theo is a creature on the cutting edge, one of many furry and feathered animals that appear to be benefiting as a growing number of mainstream veterinarians incorporate holistic approaches into their practices in efforts to shore up immune systems, ease metabolic stress, or relieve chronic pain from arthritis, hip dysplasia, and degenerative diseases of the joints. The treatment strategies, which concentrate on restoring the body's natural balance, are in particular demand for pets nearing the end of their lives and unable to tolerate surgery or additional medication.

Acupuncture, chiropractic manipulation, and homeopathy are the most widely practiced alternative methods, but veterinarians also are trying lesser-known approaches, such as dosing animals with Chinese herbs thought to promote healing; naturopathy, which emphasizes a cleansing of the body through fasting, drinking water, exercise, and massage; and applied kinesiology, a muscle-testing diagnostic technique. Many practitioners, Rotner among them, combine Western medicine--which focuses largely on curing the symptoms of disease--with one or more of the concepts in the holistic cabinet. Acupuncture has been deemed an accepted method of treatment by the American Veterinary Medical Association since 1988, while the chiropractic annroach has been given preliminary approval by the group for three years as its effectiveness is studied. Veterinarians can be trained and certified in these methods through courses offered by the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society, the American Veterinary Chiropractic Society, and the Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy.

Another reflection of the spiraling interest in such approaches for animals, ranging from birds to horses, is the rapid growth of the American Holistic Veterinary Association. Founded in 1982, the organization's membership includes 650 U.S. veterinarians and 100 more abroad. At its headquarters in Bel Air, Maryland, the phone rings up to 30 times a day as staffers try to help pet owners seeking information or requesting referrals to veterinarians.

Rotner has spent each Friday for the past three years at Angell, the renowned hospital owned by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals/American Humane Education Society, practicing acupuncture on dogs and cats that have been referred to her by staff veterinarians. The method taps into certain points along the body's fundamental energy fields--or meridians, to use the terminology of the trade--releasing biochemicals that block pain, swelling, and inflammation of muscles and bones. The "acupoints" are near free nerve endings, which helps the needles achieve a far-reaching effect in an animal's body. Orthopedic surgeon Paul Gambardella, Angell's chief of staff, believes the treatment often relieves pain and has no negative side effects.

Jane Harrison brought her 19-year-old cat, Marcel, to Rotner in hopes of reducing the stiffness in his hind limbs. Marcel was taking prednisone for inflammatory bowel disease and a medication to boost his thyroid; to halt renal failure, Harrison was injecting the feline with fluids prescribed by his primary veterinarian. After Marcel started acupuncture, his appetite improved, his kidney condition stabilized, and some of his old spunk returned. "I think, overall, he's much better," Harrison says. "He's started acting mischievous again, and his ability to get around has improved a lot."

Similar stories are not hard to come by, at Angell and elsewhere.

Like Theo, Frankie is 13--a ripe age for a German shepherd. By 1995, pain from arthritis and hip dysplasia made it nearly impossible for her to lie down and get up. Her owner, Nancy Young, was willing to do anything to make the dog's life more enjoyable, and she jumped at the chance to try acupuncture when it was suggested. These days, when Young throws a ball, Frankie trots after it. After the game, she looks forward to a walk around the block.

Overall, Rotner estimates her success rate at 80 percent. "It has been surprising, the range of effects," she says. "In some cases you are sure it will work and it doesn't. Other times I'm pessimistic and the animal has done great."

Rotner initially was skeptical, for instance, about whether she could help Carrie, a 10-year-old Irish setter. The dog came in with severe pain from degenerative joint disease and an arthritic stiffening of the lower spinal column and tail, known as spondylosis, that caused her to fall over when she tried to walk. After one treatment, Carrie's gait improved and her spirits lifted. Two more visits eliminated any sign of lameness. She continues to see Rotner every four to five weeks, and on the days in between she romps with the other canine member of her family, a 2-year-old of the same breed.

Although Rotner limits her use of holistic medicine to acupuncture, many veterinarians use two or more approaches on their patients. Veterinarian Bud Allen, who practices with his wife, Robin Karlin, in Haydenville, Massachusetts, found he was having a 60 to 70 percent success rate with acupuncture. He suspected that rate could be improved with the addition of chiropractic treatment, a manipulation of the vertebrae and the joints that is intended to restore normal blood flow and nerve function.

The experience of Cecily Bastedo's cairn terrier, Duncan, helps Allen make his case. Duncan had been violently shaken by a larger dog and left in severe pain from an injured neck. Bastedo made the rounds, trying steroids and other medications, which did little to ease her pet's agony. When she learned about Allen, she and Duncan made the 90-minute trip from her home in Dublin, New Hampshire, each week for a time. Today, the dog continues to have acupuncture and a chiropractic session once a month. "The effect is so remarkable," Bastedo says. "I sleep a whole lot better at night now that he's not in pain."

While her husband, Allen, practices acupuncture and gives his patients chiropractic treatment, Karlin works to find the correct homeopathic remedy. She recounts good results in both dogs and cats with skin problems or behavioral disorders, such as repetitive chewing. "Five years ago I would have laughed," says Karlin. "Now I don't laugh anymore." She and Allen share a philosophy: if it works and it does no harm, give it a whirl.

Veterinarian William Pollak's Fairfield, Iowa, practice is based on the holistic approach. He begins treating any malady by setting out to correct nutritional deficiencies, then moves on to spinal manipulation, calling such therapy particularly effective in treating musculoskeletal conditions. Pollak believes that emotional disturbances are responsive to regimens known as Bach flower remedies. The infusions of diluted flowers and tree buds are said to act on the psychological state, which, in turn, can have a positive effect on an animal's physical condition.

These approaches, like chiropractic treatment for animals, have yet to win acceptance at Angell and the rest of the mainstream veterinary community, but time and testing may change that. Richard Pitcairn, veterinarian and coauthor of a well-known guide to natural health for dogs and cats, has pioneered the holistic approach for the past 19 years at his clinic in Eugene, Oregon. The method is based on the theory that "like cures like"--that a patient with a particular sickness is very sensitive to a medicine that produces the same symptoms and that, when given in a highly diluted form, the treatment boosts the healing process. There are 1,300 remedies, resulting from the work of German physician Samuel Hahnemann, who created the system two centuries ago.

Pitcairn, a founder of the Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy, uses the approach to treat both disease and injury. Sometimes, he says, one dose is all that is needed to aid an animal; chronic conditions, on the other hand, must be treated over a period that can last a year. Pitcairn stresses that no matter what kind of case is at hand, homeopathy is based on rules that must be consistently applied. Last fall, a mixed-breed dog named Katy was brought to his office with a degenerated spinal disc that had caused sudden paralysis and weakness in the back legs. Cortisone had not eased the situation, and Pitcairn treated Katy with a remedy called nux vomica to reverse the effects of the steroid. He followed it with a dose of sulfur, a treatment designed to stop the inflammation and enhance the healing of tissues around the disc. "That was October and the dog is walking normally," he asserts. "Homeopathy has a certain elegance in terms of simplicity."

Pollak believes a pet owner's attitude plays a key role in what treatment is right, that human and animal are emotionally connected in such a way that success can depend on the level of confidence in the approach, no matter whether it is holistic, traditional, or a combination of the two.

In the Hawthorne Animal Hospital in Salem, Massachusetts, where veterinarians use Western medicine, acupuncture, and homeopathy, Rotner has found that clients tend to turn first to what they know. With the explosion of public consciousness about alternative treatments and holistic philosophy in recent years, she has found that pet owners are more likely to consider alternative approaches as an initial choice, rather than as a last resort. This is so despite the cost; a single acupuncture treatment, for example, averages between $50 and $60.

During her weekly stint at Angell, Rotner stays busy. She handles six to eight patients a day, applying the needles and removing them while finding out what is going on in the lives of the dogs, the cats, and the people who own them. On a break, she talks about how gratifying it is to help animals that have given so much to their companions.

Harrison, Marcel's owner, is a freelance musician who has moved often over the last two decades. Her cat, an elder even among the group seen by Rotner, is a real fighter. Her relationship with him, Harrison says with affection and pride, has been the most consistent one in her life.

"As long as he wants to live," she says, "I will do anything for him."

COPYRIGHT 1997 Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group